


Kids Like Us

by TheArtisticIntrovert



Category: Sally Face (Video Games)
Genre: (tagging it bc it's one of my triggers sO), Gen, Implied/Referenced Parental Neglect, just sal and max bonding, oc-insert, sal needs better neighbors
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-24
Updated: 2017-10-24
Packaged: 2019-01-22 16:39:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,022
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12486108
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheArtisticIntrovert/pseuds/TheArtisticIntrovert
Summary: “Yeah, I’ll be okay. Mama always said I got a thick skull."--In which Sal meets the neighbors, and finds a weird little boy with the same scars as him.Set in the first episode, before Sal meets Larry.





	Kids Like Us

**Author's Note:**

> if any of this is inaccurate pls don't attack idk what i'm doing and research only gets me so far. i am disabled, but my disability is an "invisible illness" and doesn't require prostheses.

Meeting the neighbors was an experience, to say the least. At the end of it, Sal wanted to scream. Too many of his neighbors were rude old people, and if he ever had to talk to them again, it’d be too soon.

 

He was just about to head back to his own apartment when he bumped into somebody on the 3rd floor. Both of them stumbled back, a faint mechanical whirring breaking the silence. “Ow....” a young voice whimpered. Sal hissed, rubbing his head.

 

“Hey, sorry.....I wasn’t looking where I was going,” he apologized. The boy smiled weakly, rubbing his forehead with one glove-covered palm. “Are you okay?”

 

“Yeah, I’ll be okay. Mama always said I got a thick skull,” he laughed, wincing slightly. Sal frowned, though he knew the boy couldn’t see it. “By the way, what the heck’s your mask made of? It didn’t feel like a skull that hit me,” the kid asked. Sal bit back a sigh, shoulders tensing slightly.

 

“It’s not a mask, and it’s made of silicon,” he grumbled, looking away and crossing his arms defensively. The boy gasped, and Sal winced slightly, waiting for the pity.

 

“Woah! It’s a prosthetic, right? It looks really cool! Hey, c’mere, I wanna show you something, but we gotta go back to my apartment first!” the boy said instead. Sal blinked, looking up sharply, but instead of pity all he found was excitement. He found himself agreeing without knowing why, following the kid (more like “was dragged behind”) to apartment 304.

 

The inside was much cozier than the Fisher’s apartment, while also feeling sterile. Sal shuddered, frowning as he looked around. “Um, are your parents okay with you bringing a stranger here?” he managed to ask, dodging a small, white coffee table. The boy froze for a second, before continuing through the apartment like he’d never stopped.

 

“Don’t worry, they don’t care much about what I do, s’long as I don’t get any stains on the furniture,” he said, voice oddly chipper. It was too different from the easygoing enthusiasm he’d had before. Sal winced slightly, biting the inside of his cheek.

 

“I uh....I get how it is. Sorry, kid.” The boy shook his head, opening a door and showing Sal inside.

 

“No worries. Oh! Before I forget. What’s your name? Mine’s Max,” he said, flopping down on his tiny bed and kicking his shoes off. Sal scratched the back of his head, carefully avoiding the mechanical bits and bobs scattered around the room. This place was worse than Todd’s, and that was saying something.

 

“My name’s Sal. I’m in 402, we just moved in today,” he said, carefully sitting down in the desk chair. Max grinned, pulling his thick curls back into a ponytail.

 

“Nice t’meet ya, Sal!” he said, before yelping in pain and glaring at his left arm. Sal had a feeling about what Max had wanted to show him, but he still wasn’t certain.

 

“So, what did you want to show me?” he asked, finally deciding to quit beating around the bush. Max blinked, mouthing something to himself before he sat up straight.

 

“Right! Sorry, totally forgot. Your prosthetic, it is a prosthetic, right?” he asked. Sal’s shoulders tensed again, but he nodded. “Right! Thought so. Anyway, I wanted to show ya that I have one too! I couldn’t show you in the hall because then someone would’ve seen and talked, and Mama doesn’t like it when people talk,” he babbled, taking off his sweater.

 

Sal blinked. Max was wearing a tank top underneath, but that wasn’t the surprising part. No, the surprising part was that this tiny twelve-year-old had an arm ending in a scarred stump, attached to a metal prosthetic. “Woah....” he breathed. Max grinned shyly.

 

“You like it? I know it’s not as professional as yours, but I’m still proud! Built it myself, ya know?” he said, smiling down at his mechanical arm. Sal’s eyes, if possible, widened further. Far enough that he was legitimately concerned about his eye falling out.

 

“That’s so cool! You  _ built  _ that?” he asked, fingers twitching in an aborted mission to run his fingers over it. Max nodded, a blush darkening his cheeks. “It looks better than mine, Max. I’m not sure  _ what _ they were thinking with this—” here he gestured to his face “—but I’ve read up on craniofacial prostheses and this isn’t it.” Max nodded seriously, blush gone now.

 

“Adults think they know best. They probably told you they weren’t able to save you, huh? That you were too messed up, and nothing they did could fix it,” he said, unusually serious. Sal nodded, taken aback. Max smiled bitterly. “Yeah, thought so. They told me I’d never be able to use my arm again. The damage was too extensive, and the shock of the surgery required would kill me.” He snorted. “Not being able to build again,  _ that’s  _ what would kill me.” His smile turned vicious, and Sal almost felt the need to scramble back.

 

Almost.

 

He brushed trembling fingers over the familiar silicon, forcing his eyes to remain dry. “You....have a point,” he admitted, as much as it hurt to hear a  _ twelve-year-old _ be as bitter as him. “But hey, what can we do? We’re just kids. Disabled kids of color, at that. Nothing we say is going to convince them.” The words tasted sour in his mouth. He hated admitting his weakness.

 

“We wait.” Sal looked over at Max in surprise. He’d pulled his sweater back on, but was staring at his left hand like it held the answers to all of life’s questions. “My.....friend, they told me that adults never listen to kids like me. Kids like us. So, we wait. And while we wait, we get stronger. We don’t let them know what we can do, and when the time comes to show them, they’ll be so surprised that they can’t do anything to stop us.” His lips twisted into a grimace as he looked up, locking eyes with Sal. “But hey, what do I know? I’m just a kid.”

 

......Sal really needed to find better neighbors.

**Author's Note:**

> i wanted them to meet
> 
> EDIT: changed max's apartment to 304, because upon rewatching episode 2 i realized that 303 was chug's and wasn't empty.


End file.
